Intertops Review

Intertops has been around for a long time. They were formed
back in the 1980s as traditional bookies and they made the move
online in 1996. Since then they have become one of the best
known betting brands and have satisfied customers all over the
world.

Overview

Intertops is the common ancestor of all online sportsbooks
and casinos. Though the company has been in business since the
early 1980s – opening the world's first offshore international
sportsbook at that time – they didn't go live on the Internet
until 1996. Intertops still considers itself "the first" online
betting service, though naturally that title is claimed by any
number of old-school bookmakers and casino sites.

Intertops' firsts don't stop there. They launched a
fully-mobile site in the year 2000, becoming the first
sportsbook to do so. They also opened the first "all-in-one"
casino, sportsbook, and poker site in 2003. Both of those
features this site created have taken off to the point that not
having a mobile site or a casino and poker room attached to your
sportsbook is a little odd.

Let's be honest, though – a lot of that is ancient history in
an industry where some of the big players weren't even conceived
of in 2003. What is Intertops like these days, now that they're
approaching the first twenty-year anniversary in the online
betting industry?

I Want to Start With Some Positive Comments on What I Think
Intertops is Doing Right:

Intertops earns high marks for credibility and
longevity – and accepts US customers.

It's hard not to trust the world's oldest betting website.
Intertops is listed as an accredited site at influential
industry review site Casinomeister.com. That alone gives me a
good feeling about the company's policies, as it's difficult for
a rogue site to escape the guys at Casinomeister. As for their
willingness to do business with Americans, the site has
partnered with the Kahnawake jurisdiction to open a special
section of their site made for people from the USA. It's tough
for Americans to find online gambling opportunities, so
Intertops' willingness to do business with Americans is a big
deal. Note: Residents of the US state of Kentucky will still be
barred from opening an account at Intertops.

The site has earned high marks from major review
sites.

As a casino and sportsbook reviewer, I'm used to
discussing the merits of sites that may or may not be totally
above-board. Intertops is not one of those sites. All my
favorite reviewers have mostly positive things to say about the
site. CasinoListings makes special note of their fast withdrawal times
and solid reputation. I agree with both of those points. All
user complaints at AskGamblers have been resolved, and reading
through the reviews at the bottom of their review, you'll find
mostly positive things with a few quibbles about the cost of
withdrawals.

The site seems tailor-made for budget bettors, who
don't have much else of a place to play.

If your bankroll is limited, you'll feel right at home
at Intertops, because limitations on betting make this anything
but an ideal spot for high rollers. I say this because of a
combination of low limits on the sportsbook, limitations on
bonuses and promotions, and limited participation in the
sportsbook.

And Now For a Few Negative Things, Those Areas Where
Intertops Needs to Improve:

Casino licensure comes from the jurisdiction of
Kahnawake.

Intertops' Classic Casino and Red Casino feature RTG games
licensed by the authority of Kahnawake. While the rest of the
site is licensed from the more –legitimate jurisdiction of
Antigua & Barbuda, Intertops looked to Kahnawake to allow them
to access the lucrative US market. Kahnawake is not one of the
tougher gambling jurisdictions to get a license from. Kahnawake
is a tiny plot of land occupied by native people, and as far as
I can tell, the "nation" was organized primarily to provide
gaming licenses to online casino and sportsbooks. It's not a
very legitimate license, but I'm willing to let it go for the
time being. After all – some legitimate operations are licensed
by Kahnawake. It'd be nice, though, if Intertops could license
all their games from a single source.

The casino library was designed entirely by Realtime
Gaming.

I don't hide the fact that I'm not a fan of RTG's games.
Sure, some people don't mind playing their games, but I think
the library is so ubiquitous that I get bored easily when I play
at a new RTG-powered site. Worst of all is the slot collection,
a ton of repetitive Real Series games that don't hold my
attention for more than a couple of minutes with very little
variation thrown in. The mobile site, like most RTG-powered
mobile sites, is not good-looking at all, identical to all the
other mobile casinos RTG designs, and has too few games for any
real replay value. I wish the site would mix up their game suite
with titles from other designers.

Most of the site's bonuses come with hefty wagering
requirements.

I'm not trying to say that the promotional offers at the site
are unreasonable – they aren't, but they're well behind the most
player-friendly sites in the industry. I understand - games like
blackjack and video poker that give the house a smaller
advantage don't count as much toward clearing bonuses as games
like slots and keno that favor the house more. That's standard
practice and it makes good sense. But this is still a black mark
on Intertops' reputation for me, because basically every bonus
is out of reach of the common customer.

Bonus Details

Before I give details on Intertops' bonus offers, I want to
let you know that you should check the site's Promotions page to see which offers are
currently available. Sites tend to change the specifics of
offers every few months, so the offers below may or may not be
valid at the time of your visit.

$100 Sportsbook Sign-Up Bonus

First-time
depositors to the sportsbook are eligible for a 25% deposit
match bonus worth up to $100. The rollover requirement is 8x the
deposit-plus-bonus amount, which is a little higher than other
online sportsbook bonus requirements that I've covered. Take
note that bets on any "no juice" games do not count toward
clearing this bonus.

$20 Free Bet for Sportsbook Customers

Sportsbook customers who don't want to chase the $100 sign-up
bonus can elect to earn $20 in free betting cash just for
signing up. Sign up, make a deposit of $20 or more, make a bet
of $20 or more, then email the customer support staff to let
them now you want your free bet token. You have to place $320 in
bets to clear any winnings from that initial $20.

Casino Welcome Bonus

First-time depositors
who intend to play mostly casino games are eligible for a 100%
deposit match bonus worth up to $100. The rollover requirement
is 30x deposit plus bonus. Only bets on this list of games are
eligible for bonus clearing:

Bingo

European slot poker

Keno

Scratch Cards

Slots

This offer is essentially a souped-up slots bonus, but it is
valid at either the Red Casino or the Classic Casino, so it's a
little bit flexible.

Poker Welcome Bonus

Intertops' largest
bonus offer is made to poker players. They can earn a 200%
deposit match worth up to $1,000 on their first deposit. The
bonus is clear not with a playthrough requirement but based on
accumulating Frequent Player Points. Bettors can exchange 84 of
these points for $5 of bonus cash. One FPP requires $1 of rake,
so clearing a $1,000 bonus requires $16,800 in rake.

Poker Rake Race Giveaway

Intertops' Rake
Race is exactly what it sounds like – a competition between
poker players. The site's top 100 rake-paying poker players
split a cash prize of $5,000 each month.

Refer-a-Friend

You can earn 10% of the
first deposit of any friends you refer to the site, provided the
friend's triggering deposit is worth $20 or more. This reward is
capped at $20 per friend, and requires a 6x rollover requirement
before the funds are cleared.

Banking Options

This Table of Intertops Deposit Options Makes All the
Important Details Available in a Single Location:

Method

Works in US/Canada?

Minimum

Maximum

Debit/Credit Card

Yes

$20

$500/day or $2,500/wk

Neteller

-

$20

$5,000

Skrill

-

$20

$5,000

Skrill

Instant

10

13,000

Sofort

-

none

none

Money Global

Yes

$100

varies

UKash

-

$5

$750

Paysafecard

-

none

none

Bank wire transfer

-

none

none

Bank transfer

-

none

none

Ecocard

-

$10

$5,000

And Now For the Same Table About Intertops' Withdrawal
Methods:

Method

Works in US/Canada?

Minimum

Maximum

Check

Yes

$150

$3,000/wk

Bank wire transfer

Yes

$150

$2,500/wk

Debit/Credit Card

Yes

$100

$5,000

Neteller

-

none

$2,500

Skrill

-

none

none

Money Global

Yes

$100

varies

Ecocard

-

none

none

UKash

Yes

none

$300

Bank transfer

-

none

none

Sportsbook

Intertops was started by bookmakers as an online sports
betting venue. Long before you could play blackjack, bet on the
horses, or chase a big poker prize pool, Intertops customers
were placing wagers on sports.

It should be no surprise, then, that the site is still
heavily geared towards sportsbook customers and their desires.

Here's the Complete List of Markets Covered by Intertops at
the Time of This Review:

Cycling

Golf

Ice Hockey

Motor Sports

Lottery / Financials

American Football

Baseball

Basketball

Boxing/UFC

Cricket

Politics

Soccer

Stock Market

Tennis

Halftime Betting

I miss some of the more obscure markets available at
Intertops' competitors – where are virtual sports, eSports,
surfing, Aussie rules football, and futures bets? I'm used to
those options because they're something of an industry standard
– even though I may never bet on virtual sports, it's unusual
not to find it at a major sports betting operation.

Sports bettors can place a variety of wagers at Intertops –
all the standards are represented, like straight, parlay,
teaser, and a whole series of if-win and prop bets.

Intertops has live in-play betting, but at the time of my
visit, the stream was slow and jerky, and the coverage was
extremely limited. The collection of sports events covered by
the site's live betting section varies by sports season, but on
the day I visited, with major soccer and pro baseball matches
all over the world, I had very few options for in-play bets.

Poker

Intertops' Poker section is now part of the Revolution Gaming
Network, after changing hands several times in the past decade.
Revolution is not one of the better-known networks, and in fact
currently only includes two legitimate skins – Intertops and
Juicy Stakes. According to PokerScout, the entire network is averaging just 85
cash players online at any given time in the past week.

It's hard to say anything general about a player pool that's
around one percent the size of the larger networks. Some reviews
claim that the competition is fishy, and make the same arguments
you'll always read about "all-in-one" sites like this one – that
competition is weakened by sportsbook and casino customers. I'm
not sure that's true, because I don't have a ton of experience
playing at this site and no other experience on the Revolution
network. I noticed that the majority of players seemed to hover
below the $1/$2 mark.

Here's the Complete List of Games Available at Intertops as
of This Review:

Texas Hold'em

Omaha

Omaha hi/lo

7 card stud

7 card stud hi/lo

As for tournaments –check their
page for a list of upcoming poker tournament events. It's updated daily. The site is known for hosting a
large number of tournaments in a variety of game styles. On the
day I wrote this review, I counted 100 events from midnight to
midnight. All tournaments tend to be small prize pool affairs –
I chalk that up to the small pool of regular players on this
network.

The site offers a special $1,000 Depositor Freeroll
tournament each month. Every player who makes a minimum deposit
of $25 and plays poker at the site earns a spot in the monthly
tournament. Other special tournament events are made known to
members, including freerolls and qualifiers for larger events
later in the year.

Casino Classic

The total number of games available at Intertops Casino on my
last visit was 121.

The game library is broken up into six categories: Real
Series, Slots, Video Poker, Table Games, Specialty Games, and
Progressives.

Real Series

Collected here are the site's 78 Real Series slot titles.
This is one of Realtime Gaming's weakest areas, in terms of
design. I'm a big slots fan, and I'm just not partial to Real
Series titles, and RTG sure produces a ton of them. The games
look and behave so similarly that switching titles basically
means switching symbols. There's little replay value.

Take note that RTG allows casinos to set their own payout
percentages on slot games, so I can't tell you which of
Intertops' Real Series games gives you the best return. This is
common among online slot designers, so no big deal here.

Slots

The thirteen slots here are further broken up into three
categories: Video Slots, Bonus 3-Reel, and 3-Reel Classics.
Intertops basically stuck all their RTG titles that AREN'T from
the Real Series line under this heading. The thing is, I
actually enjoy these games a lot more.

Sure, the 3-reel titles are a little simple. But Video Slots
like Jazz Time actually kept me interested, even in
pretend-money mode, and offer some unique gameplay.

Video Poker

Thirteen RTG video poker titles are available at Intertops.
Of course this includes the classics like Jacks or Better, but
it also includes less-familiar entries like All-American Poker.
Every video poker game is available in multi-hand formats,
though the number of hands varies from title to title.

The site has just one 9/6 title – classic Jacks or Better in
single-hand format only. This 9/6 format gives the player the
best advantage against the house. In the case of RTG's classic J
or B single-hand game, the casino's edge is just 0.46%,
according to Wizard of Odds. I wish more 9/6 games were
available, but at least the site has one, which is more than I
can say of other American-facing RTG casinos.

Table Games

Here's the Complete List of Games Available Under Intertops
"Table Games" Header:

Baccarat

Tri-Card Poker

Blackjack

Match Play 21

Pai Gow Poker

Perfect Pairs

Red Dog

Face-Up 21

Texas Holdem Bonus Poker

Vegas Three-Card Rummy

As I often find at RTG-powered sites, most of their table
games are variations on the classic game of 21. The remaining
games on the list are card-based gambles, most with long odds
for players.

Specialty Games

I Think the Games Collected Under the "Specialty" Heading is
Downright Weird. Here's the Full List:

Craps

European Roulette

American Roulette

Bonus Bingo

Sic Bo

Keno

European Slot Poker

Scratch Cards

What's so weird about it? It's a blend of games with decent
odds (European roulette and craps) with oddball games with
extremely long odds like scratch cards and Sic Bo.

The scratch card games produced by RTG have absolutely no
odds information made available anywhere, so wagers placed on
these virtual lotto tickets are probably among the longest odds
available at the site.

Progressives

The games gathered here aren't parts of a unique group;
instead, Intertops has collected all their games with
progressive jackpots in a single location. I imagine this is a
convenient choice if you're the type of player that chases
progressive top prizes.

At my last visit, ten progressive games are hosted at the
site, three of which were based on side wagers for casino-style
poker games collected in the Table Games heading. It's a pretty
small selection compared to some of the world's better gaming
sites.

Both download and instant play games are available in Casino
Classic.

Red Casino

The site's "Red Casino" is identical to Casino Classic, but
with games and licenses that allow most Americans to access
them. For details on this category's games, see the above Casino
Classic section.

Both download and instant play games are available in the Red
Casino.

Customer Support

Intertops lists a number of ways to contact the site for all
customer services issues.

A variety of toll-free numbers are listed on the site's
Contact page:

Toll-Free Numbers

1-800-819-0919

1-866-546-0406

1-888-5-366-366

Payout Hotlines

1-866-546-0406

1-888-5-366-366

Fax

1-268-484-3112

The Site Lists Four Dedicated Email Addresses For Four
Different Categories of Questions:

General information and all sportsbook questions:

bet@intertops.eu

Poker-related questions:

poker@intertops.eu

Casino-related questions:

casino@intertops.eu

All payment queries:

payments@intertops.eu

Live chat is available 24/7.You can also contact the site via Skype

their ID is
intertops_english_support.

As is the case with the rest of the site, customer support is
available in German and English only.

Summary

Intertops has the longevity, the reputation, and the customer
base to be a major player in the industry. They were the first
to offer so many features – a mobile site, all-in-one betting,
and several prominent payment methods were all developed as a
feature of Intertops.eu. Though the shine has rubbed off the
site over the years, they're still a trustworthy name with
nearly twenty years' experience.

While I wish they'd reconsider the whole "multiple casinos
for different customers" thing – it's confusing and ugly and not
all that functional – I appreciate the site's desire to continue
doing business with US customers. Despite a weak promotional
program and a license from Kahnawake, I have no problem
recommending this site to bettors.

Verdict

European bettors are likely to find a comfortable
home at one of the multiple venues for betting available at
Intertops. American customers aren't fully welcome at all the
site's categories, but Intertops appears to be working on a fix
in that regard, too.

I recommend Intertops, but warn poker
players that many sites with heavier traffic exist, so check
those out before you commit to this one.